Speaker 1: Hey, hey, hey, I'm back in a black and were brown.
Speaker 2: This is Tiffany Elice, Brian Ambish.
Speaker 3: And Mandy Woodruff co Ho.
Speaker 2: There, So, Maddy, are you ready to die? Segue? How
Speaker 2: that wort segment? I bet you're not. I bet you're not.
Speaker 3: Uh No, I'm scared though.
Speaker 2: It's really a question that we should all kind of
Speaker 2: ask ourselves, or do we have the two most important
Speaker 2: documents that you ought to have before you pass on
Speaker 2: from this life and onto whatever the next stage that
Speaker 2: you believe in. And so we have brought on the amazing,
Speaker 2: the incomparable these splendiferous art, beautiful, smart art Steel art
Speaker 2: Is Steel is a state planning attorney who helps entrepreneurs
Speaker 2: and families protect what matters most. She actually started her
Speaker 2: career I'm gonna say this wrong because I don't know,
Speaker 2: it just looks crazy. Yes, yeah, who, thank you Jesus.
Speaker 2: And she went to work for work at the General
Speaker 2: Tax Council for Discovery Communications, Yes, like Discovery Channel. She's
Speaker 2: kind of a big deal. She started her own law
Speaker 2: firm because you know, Flyinis in twenty fourteen, and she
Speaker 2: started legal Ease, get it like legal Ease like down
Speaker 2: Road for Entrepreneurs.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna take this and play this every single time.
Speaker 2: Somebody introduces Legal Ease for Entrepreneurs podcast in twenty sixteen,
Speaker 2: which is amazing which a parents minority business owners to
Speaker 2: tackle the legal needs for their business.
Speaker 4: Welcome, Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited.
Speaker 3: What in the intro I said, if you handle the intro,
Speaker 3: and that's what we got.
Speaker 2: Today has been like the worst day of my life.
Speaker 2: Oh so I say no, But you know what, the
Speaker 2: best way to get out a bad day is to
Speaker 2: just make the next moments like amazing, you got get amazed? Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's that's what I bring when I come to podcasts.
Speaker 3: Well, this is a topic that I'm really really excited
Speaker 3: about because you know, on a recent episode, we got
Speaker 3: some questions around life insurance and it just reminded me
Speaker 3: that it's, Yeah, it's one of those questions that people
Speaker 3: don't like to I mean, just the fact that Tiffany asked,
Speaker 3: are you ready to die? I got really hot and
Speaker 3: sweaty just thinking about that. But when you break it
Speaker 3: down into just like the simple things, the checklist of
Speaker 3: every the few things, the simple things everyone should have
Speaker 3: in place, it's not you know, it's not that intimidating,
Speaker 3: it's not that scary, and it's something that you can
Speaker 3: do and forget about until your day.
Speaker 4: Comes and then you still never have to do and then.
Speaker 3: An angel problem after that point. Yeah, But my guilty
Speaker 3: truth is that I'm not ready to die. I don't
Speaker 3: have anything art. I don't have a power. I don't
Speaker 3: have a state plan. I don't even know what that is. Really,
Speaker 3: I don't have a will. I don't know what I'm doing.
Speaker 3: I don't know about Tiffany. But I feel like I
Speaker 3: want to get it right. I've just been sort of
Speaker 3: intimidated for so long, and you know, I suffer from
Speaker 3: that young, invincible thing where I was in my twenties
Speaker 3: and now I'm hitting the threes and I I'm feeling
Speaker 3: a little bit more mortal every day, and I want
Speaker 3: to get my stuff together.
Speaker 4: Wait until you have kids, think I do have I
Speaker 4: do have life insurance.
Speaker 2: I got that when I was young and popping in
Speaker 2: my twenties and I bought a condo. So I was like, ooh,
Speaker 2: if I die, Like, how do I got to pay
Speaker 2: for this thing? Other than that, I don't have anything
Speaker 2: like I don't have a will, although I do have
Speaker 2: a really great business lawyer who is drawing up some
Speaker 2: contracts for me. Now about what happens I have a
Speaker 2: business partner. What happens if either one of us passes
Speaker 2: and leaves a business, you know, like prematurely. But other
Speaker 2: than that, yeah, I don't. I don't have any other
Speaker 2: My plan is quite honestly, to live forever. So I
Speaker 2: hope that. But what should we do? Please? Get us started?
Speaker 2: What's the if we don't have anything? If you are Mandy, right,
Speaker 2: not Tiffany, because I have a little something, if you
Speaker 2: were Mandy. What's the first thing?
Speaker 4: Where do we start?
Speaker 2: What should we do?
Speaker 4: Okay? Okay? So first I think I like for people
Speaker 4: to start to think about a state planning differently. It's
Speaker 4: it's not so much if we didn't think about it
Speaker 4: or associated so much with death as much as with
Speaker 4: a legacy and what we want to leave behind. I
Speaker 4: think we would have a very different approach to it.
Speaker 4: And when I talk when you talk about like what
Speaker 4: you want to leave behind? I think a lot of
Speaker 4: of us think about how we want people to remember us,
Speaker 4: but we don't think about death, right, we don't want
Speaker 4: to think about that day that will die, but we
Speaker 4: think about how we would want to be remembered, like
Speaker 4: what footprint would we want to leave on this earth
Speaker 4: and what would we want people to say about us?
Speaker 4: And I think that if we think about estate planning
Speaker 4: that way, then it's not so taboo. But that's definitely
Speaker 4: a problem and it's and it's one in the black
Speaker 4: community that is just so prevalent and it's debilitating, is
Speaker 4: actually hurting us, and it's it's interesting because I'm a
Speaker 4: Christian and I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe that
Speaker 4: he is my Lord and savior. I believe that when
Speaker 4: I die, by his grace, I will go to Heaven.
Speaker 4: And so it's it's not something that I mean, yeah,
Speaker 4: I don't know what's going to happen. I don't want
Speaker 4: to die in a horrible accident. But I'm okay with that,
Speaker 4: and most Christians say they are. But then still we
Speaker 4: just avoid this topic because it's like it's so negative.
Speaker 4: God forbid, don't talk about dying. But it's like it's
Speaker 4: the one thing that he promises us.
Speaker 3: Right, it's a well, just to interrupt for a second,
Speaker 3: it's an individual. It's like you're thinking about it in
Speaker 3: your own in the sense of yourself. Oh, you know,
Speaker 3: when I pass on, I'm not afraid to die. I
Speaker 3: know I'll be taken care of, you know, with whatever
Speaker 3: religion you might believe in. But it's about thinking beyond yourself,
Speaker 3: Like what about the people you leave behind? Is that
Speaker 3: what you're kind of.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly, because you will leave, you will leave. I mean,
Speaker 4: for most of us, we will leave at least one
Speaker 4: person who loves us dearly who is going to be
Speaker 4: significantly impacted by our our loss or their loss of us. Right,
Speaker 4: So not only do you know, we hope that that
Speaker 4: person recovers from their grief, but we also don't want
Speaker 4: to leave them in a financial mess when we die
Speaker 4: if there's something that we can do about it. So
Speaker 4: when you think about a state planning, there's like a spectrum.
Speaker 4: I like to say, I think it goes. It starts
Speaker 4: at planning for incapacity, and a lot of people, if
Speaker 4: they do get to the topic of a state planning,
Speaker 4: they never talk about incapacity. All they think about is
Speaker 4: like Tiffany who goes and gets the life insurance policy, right,
Speaker 4: but that life insurance policy is only paid out if
Speaker 4: you die? What happens if you're in a car accident? Okay,
Speaker 4: So first of all, in order for me to make
Speaker 4: my point, some bad things will have to happen.
Speaker 2: Okay, I've already knocked on wood and too hot oil,
Speaker 2: so we don't have.
Speaker 4: To do it every time, right, exactly covered by the blood.
Speaker 4: So what happens if you're in an accident and you're incapacitated? You,
Speaker 4: let's say you didn't have a partner, a business partner,
Speaker 4: and you're in a coma, who does anything? Who has
Speaker 4: access like permission to go to your bank account and
Speaker 4: take money out for payroll? Who has the ability to
Speaker 4: take money out of your personal account to pay your
Speaker 4: mortgage on your home, or your car payment, or your
Speaker 4: power bill or your rent right. So a lot of
Speaker 4: people skip over that step of what happens if something
Speaker 4: happens to me? But I don't die, because a lot
Speaker 4: of stuff will happen automatically when you die, but a
Speaker 4: lot nothing happens if you're incapacitated. So the number one
Speaker 4: document that I say every single person should have single
Speaker 4: not single, married kids, not with the father or mother whatever,
Speaker 4: even children, even people who are over eighteen going to college.
Speaker 4: Is what's called a power of attorney, when that document
Speaker 4: gives whoever you name, the authority to act on your
Speaker 4: behalf in your stead as if it were you. Now,
Speaker 4: you can have two types of power of attorney. You
Speaker 4: can have what's called a general durable power of attorney,
Speaker 4: or you could just have a general power of attorney.
Speaker 4: The durable power of attorney is a power of attorney
Speaker 4: that takes effect the minute you sign it. So the
Speaker 4: minute you sign it, while you're still walking around and
Speaker 4: find this person has the authority to act on your behalf.
Speaker 4: Now you may wonder, well, if I'm okay, why would
Speaker 4: I do this? For example, Tiffany, you have a business partner,
Speaker 4: so you may give him a business power of attorney general.
Speaker 4: It would be a it would be a business not general,
Speaker 4: but it would be durable, so it would take effect
Speaker 4: the minute you sign it. He would be able to
Speaker 4: make whatever decisions you specify in that document. So you
Speaker 4: could say he can't enter into contracts up to a
Speaker 4: million dollars up to five million. He can go and
Speaker 4: close bank accounts, but he can't sell the business. Right,
Speaker 4: so you would limit what he could do. But that
Speaker 4: power of attorney would take effect the minute you sign it,
Speaker 4: and then it would endure your incapacity. So if you
Speaker 4: became incapacitated, he would still have the power, and then
Speaker 4: it ends when you die or if you die. Okay,
Speaker 4: So that's what a durable power of attorney is. A
Speaker 4: general power of attorney only takes effect when you're incapacitated.
Speaker 4: It's also called like a springing power of attorney. Now
Speaker 4: for people who are just you know, for non business people.
Speaker 4: You can have different types of power of attorney. You
Speaker 4: can have a real estate one, so you could give
Speaker 4: someone a very limited power of attorney so that they
Speaker 4: could sign real estate documents on your behalf. So if
Speaker 4: you're buying a home and you're going to be traveling
Speaker 4: for work and you want someone else to sign all
Speaker 4: of your closing documents, you can give that person a
Speaker 4: real estate power of attorney. Now, the reason why you
Speaker 4: would want it to just be a real estate power
Speaker 4: of attorney is because that's the document that's giving somebody
Speaker 4: the permission or the authority to sign on your behalf.
Speaker 4: So it would be included with all of the closing documents,
Speaker 4: and it would be public, So you wouldn't want like
Speaker 4: your general power of attorney to be a public document.
Speaker 4: So you could create a real estate one. You could
Speaker 4: create one for your business. You could create one for
Speaker 4: if you have five businesses, you could create one for
Speaker 4: each business. You could create a tax power of attorney
Speaker 4: so that somebody has the ability to talk to the
Speaker 4: Irs or your state tax department on your behalf. You
Speaker 4: can carve it out as much as you want, or
Speaker 4: you can make it as broad as you want, but
Speaker 4: everybody needs to have that document.
Speaker 3: Oh where do we get one of those?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 3: Can I go to I've definitely like started maybe one
Speaker 3: or two power as an attorney because at least once every
Speaker 3: few years, I'm gonna get my life together and I'm
Speaker 3: gonna I'm going to get one. But I never do,
Speaker 3: but I'll like I started one on Rocket Lawyer. I
Speaker 3: tried on Legal Zoom, but I've never really gone to
Speaker 3: a real life attorney for that. And I don't know,
Speaker 3: I don't know why. But what do you what do
Speaker 3: you recommend?
Speaker 4: There are two things. Some states have what's called a
Speaker 4: statutory power of attorney, So the legislature of that state,
Speaker 4: for some committee, probably fresh out of law school, law
Speaker 4: students have drafted a power of attorney that would be
Speaker 4: accepted in that state. They've done that free of charge,
Speaker 4: and it's on some website. I have a list of
Speaker 4: all of those states. I don't have it with me,
Speaker 4: but I have a list of those states that have them.
Speaker 4: If you live in one of those states, you could
Speaker 4: go and download one of those, Like if you just
Speaker 4: wanted to cover your basis right now, you could go
Speaker 4: and download one of those. And most of the time
Speaker 4: what those states will have are different types of powers
Speaker 4: like the ones I just described, and then you can
Speaker 4: just check whichever one you're giving to that person. So
Speaker 4: I would do that before I would ever go to
Speaker 4: Legal Zoom and Rocket Lawyer. The reason I say not
Speaker 4: to go to those places, it's because what they're basically
Speaker 4: doing is just giving you a really generic document. A
Speaker 4: lot of the laws are updated in these states, a
Speaker 4: lot of the laws are updated with the different institutions
Speaker 4: that you could use power of attorneys with, and a
Speaker 4: lot of those companies don't really give you instructions on
Speaker 4: what is in the document and how to use it
Speaker 4: and how to effectuate the document, meaning like how to
Speaker 4: sign it to make sure is an actual document. So
Speaker 4: I would definitely not recommend using any of those programs
Speaker 4: for any estate planning documents, and a lot of core
Speaker 4: have actually started to not accept those documents because they're
Speaker 4: not being prepared by lawyers. It literally is just a
Speaker 4: document system that you go in, you put your state,
Speaker 4: and it generates a certain amount of text. So you
Speaker 4: would be way better off using the one that your
Speaker 4: state prepared because they had lawyers who were barred in
Speaker 4: that state prepare it. The other option is to go
Speaker 4: to a lawyer. Power of attorneys generally will cost you
Speaker 4: about two fifty three four hundred dollars. I mean four
Speaker 4: hundred would be the high end for a power of attorney. Generally,
Speaker 4: they're about I think two fifty.
Speaker 3: Here's another question, how do you pick your power of attorney?
Speaker 3: You know what in my case, you know, I have
Speaker 3: a husband and that kind of thing. But what are
Speaker 3: some options, like what would be a good person to
Speaker 3: you know it? Could it be a business partner or relative? Like,
Speaker 3: how do you choose the right person? It's a big
Speaker 3: it's a big deal.
Speaker 4: Right, So it would depend on the type of power.
Speaker 4: So if it's if it's a power for your business,
Speaker 4: then yeah, you may choose your business, your business partner,
Speaker 4: and then that power would be limited only to your business.
Speaker 4: It would have to be someone who you trust, someone
Speaker 4: who you believe would act on your behalf or act
Speaker 4: in a way that you would act if you're incapacitated.
Speaker 4: And what I always tell people is, don't pick someone
Speaker 4: as your power and then don't tell them. Discuss with
Speaker 4: them because surprise, right, Yeah, Like, so discuss with them
Speaker 4: what you would want in certain situations, what your goals
Speaker 4: are for certain things. So, for example, if you're making
Speaker 4: someone a power of attorney for a home I mean
Speaker 4: for a home purchase, you would obviously talk to them
Speaker 4: about You're like, hey, I'm going off to wherever for
Speaker 4: them or deal with my house issue. You would obviously
Speaker 4: give them some boundaries, but ultimately you would just have
Speaker 4: to trust that person and trust that they would do
Speaker 4: what you would want, especially for the durable one, because
Speaker 4: you would be incapacitated. And this document gives them the
Speaker 4: ability to act on your behalf, and anything that they
Speaker 4: sign would be binding unless they acted beyond the scope
Speaker 4: of the document, or they defraud you know, somehow they
Speaker 4: did something fraudulent, But other than that, you would be
Speaker 4: you would be held responsible for anything that that person
Speaker 4: signed on your behalf, So it would have to be
Speaker 4: someone who you trust. It may not necessarily be a
Speaker 4: family member. It could be a friend. And that's the
Speaker 4: other thing that I tell people to really consider all
Speaker 4: the time, or a lot of times, especially for single people,
Speaker 4: because most of us are with our friends and people
Speaker 4: who are in our age group right more than we
Speaker 4: are with our family. But if something happens to you,
Speaker 4: your friend would probably know I don't know, I mean,
Speaker 4: depending on how close you are to your family. But
Speaker 4: your friend would probably know which bank you bank with,
Speaker 4: They would know who your who your landlord is, or
Speaker 4: you know places you frequent and and things you order
Speaker 4: you know, like places you order from, like your Netflix account,
Speaker 4: or you know all of those things. Your friends would
Speaker 4: probably know that better than your parents would. But if
Speaker 4: you don't have a power of attorney and something happens
Speaker 4: to you, your parents can't just you know, Let's say
Speaker 4: your wallet is in your apartment and your bank card
Speaker 4: is in there, and for some reason, your PIN number
Speaker 4: is there with it. Your parents can't just go to
Speaker 4: your bank account and take out money to pay your landlord.
Speaker 4: That would be fraudulent. They would not have permission to
Speaker 4: do that. So in order for your parents to get
Speaker 4: any access or any of your next of ken, your brother,
Speaker 4: or whoever to get access to any of your assets,
Speaker 4: they would have to file a petition in court. That's
Speaker 4: called a conservative a conservatorship petition. In order to do that,
Speaker 4: they're going to have to hire a lawyer. Whenever a
Speaker 4: lawyer has to file a document in court. We've gone
Speaker 4: now from the two point fifty or even the five
Speaker 4: hundred for the POA to at least three or four
Speaker 4: thousand dollars. And then we're dealing with the court. So
Speaker 4: it's not like they're going to be like, oh, this
Speaker 4: person needs to pay Mand's you know, Mandid's mom needs
Speaker 4: to pay her rent. Let's get her in here right away.
Speaker 4: It doesn't happen that way. The court has a docket, right,
Speaker 4: so you just fit in wherever you can. The probably
Speaker 4: the quickest emergency hearing you could get would be like
Speaker 4: a Friday or something. Right, and then in order for
Speaker 4: you to become a conservator of anybody's money or assets,
Speaker 4: you have to get what's called a bond. It's like insurance,
Speaker 4: because they don't want somebody for the person who is
Speaker 4: incapacitated to come back and sue either you or the court,
Speaker 4: it would be a mess. So you're basically getting insurance
Speaker 4: to be able to manage this person's funny, Well, the
Speaker 4: court doesn't offer that, so you have to go to
Speaker 4: a special company made just for this to buy this
Speaker 4: conservative conservatorship insurance, and they have their own requirements. Sometimes
Speaker 4: they require that you get a lawyer. So even if
Speaker 4: you're trying to do this by yourself, which sometimes you
Speaker 4: know a lot of courts will have these forms online
Speaker 4: and you're like, Okay, I'm going to try to do
Speaker 4: this myself. Once you get to that stage, they may
Speaker 4: require that you hire a lawyer because they figure your
Speaker 4: chances of not screwing this up or way less if
Speaker 4: you have a lawyer who's guiding you through the process.
Speaker 4: Sometimes they do a credit check. Sometimes they require that
Speaker 4: the person seeking the bond be a US citizen, not
Speaker 4: even a resident, a US citizen. Sometimes they bar people
Speaker 4: who have criminal records. So I've I've had estates where
Speaker 4: no one in the estate, no relative, could qualify to
Speaker 4: be a personal representative, so they literally could not probate
Speaker 4: the estate either because they couldn't hire a lawyer, or
Speaker 4: they somebody was a felon, or somebody was a non citizen,
Speaker 4: and it's crazy, right, What you need to do is
Speaker 4: to just get a POA. POA waives all of that stuff.
Speaker 3: And does it apply to your your spouse as well,
Speaker 3: that they won't be able to access those accounts on
Speaker 3: your behalf.
Speaker 4: Unless yeah, unless they are listed on your account as
Speaker 4: a joint owner. Now again, we're talking about incapacity mm hmm.
Speaker 4: With death. If you're so with death, if you're bank
Speaker 4: account is under a certain amount, depending on the state,
Speaker 4: depending on the bank, your spouse may be able to
Speaker 4: access some of that money because they're your next of ken,
Speaker 4: or your parents may be able to, or your your
Speaker 4: child may be able to. But that's only if you die.
Speaker 2: Mm. So the limbo is what we're talking about. I
Speaker 2: say that, yeah, and people plan for death, if they're
Speaker 2: going to plan at all, they typically plan for death, don't.
Speaker 2: They don't plan for.
Speaker 4: The in between exactly exactly. So that's why I always
Speaker 4: shay the power and the power of attorney is not
Speaker 4: a document you need when you're sick, Like you could
Speaker 4: be traveling and you could need somebody to sign something
Speaker 4: for you. Or you could need someone to speak to
Speaker 4: someone on your behalf. So it's a document that you
Speaker 4: should have regardless of your age, your marital status, your
Speaker 4: your family status, whether or not you have children, young children,
Speaker 4: you know, whatever, like you should. Everybody should just have
Speaker 4: this document, especially if you're in a state that I
Speaker 4: did one for you. There's no reason to have to
Speaker 4: not have it.
Speaker 3: Okay, So that's power of attorney.
Speaker 4: You would pay is well worth it?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 3: Sorry, can you say that again. I talked over you.
Speaker 4: I said the two fifty you would pay or three
Speaker 4: hundred or five hundred even let's just say five hundred,
Speaker 4: it would be well worth it.
Speaker 2: Okay, Okay, so power of attorney check, we need that.
Speaker 3: What's next? We then number two and so.
Speaker 4: Okay, So the next thing is a little bit. I
Speaker 4: think it's controversial because and I'm talking about life insurance. Now,
Speaker 4: I will say that I don't sell life insurance. I
Speaker 4: don't know too many of the requirements and what's good
Speaker 4: and what's not. But I want people to think of
Speaker 4: life insurance in a different way than just well, I
Speaker 4: don't have I don't have any children, I don't have
Speaker 4: anybody to leave anything to. I don't own anything. What's
Speaker 4: the point of me paying X amount per month and
Speaker 4: leaving all this money? Who am I going to leave
Speaker 4: it to? And so I think that the number one
Speaker 4: thing that people say to me when I say everybody
Speaker 4: should have an estate plan is but I don't own anything.
Speaker 4: What am I going to leave behind? And I always say,
Speaker 4: you have a life, don't you go get life insurance?
Speaker 4: Ensure your life? Because what people don't, when people don't
Speaker 4: really think about is think about the enrichment. And I
Speaker 4: know this is going to say, doun a little bit crass,
Speaker 4: but think about the enrichment that you bring to people's lives,
Speaker 4: most of us, right, and then like think about that
Speaker 4: just disappearing and how you can make up for that.
Speaker 4: And when I talk about the enrichment, yes, we all
Speaker 4: you know, we have people who love us. We love people,
Speaker 4: but like for a lot of us who probably make
Speaker 4: more the most money in our family, or who went
Speaker 4: to college and got that job, like, imagine how much
Speaker 4: money we would contribute to our community over our entire
Speaker 4: lives and then for that to just be gone and
Speaker 4: then there's no replacement for it. That's how I look
Speaker 4: at it. And I think that people should use life
Speaker 4: insurance as a way to create a legacy for our community.
Speaker 4: And when I say our community, I mean the Black community,
Speaker 4: because say it well, because one we are way behind
Speaker 4: when it comes to generational wealth. I mean I've talked
Speaker 4: about this on my podcast. There was a study that
Speaker 4: came out last year in February that basically said that
Speaker 4: the college adult, the white college adult, has seven point
Speaker 4: two times more income access to income than the college
Speaker 4: adult who was black. Seven point they both went to college,
Speaker 4: but the white person has seven point two times more income.
Speaker 4: And then another statistic was that a single parent white home,
Speaker 4: a white single parent home, has two point two times
Speaker 4: more income than a two parent black home. Because white
Speaker 4: people have had a head start on building generational wealth.
Speaker 4: And when you look back to like the nineteen seventies,
Speaker 4: and the reason for this is when you look back
Speaker 4: to the nineteen seventies and white people had a chance
Speaker 4: to buy homes for really low mortgages, they were able
Speaker 4: to get really low interest rates, whereas black people weren't
Speaker 4: even able to like buy homes period. And you take
Speaker 4: that one home, just at one home, they didn't leave
Speaker 4: millions of dollars. You just take that one home and
Speaker 4: you leave it free and clear to the next generation.
Speaker 4: And I always tell people like, imagine if you could
Speaker 4: go two years without paying rent, Like how much money
Speaker 4: you would save just by not having to pay rent.
Speaker 4: And so this wealth has compounded year after year. And
Speaker 4: what this study was saying is that the only way
Speaker 4: we can make up this gap. Going to college not
Speaker 4: going to help. Being in a two parent home not
Speaker 4: going to help all these things. Being more educated, it's
Speaker 4: not going to close the wealth gap because black people
Speaker 4: aren't passing wealth down, Like, the only way the next
Speaker 4: generation gets better is if they have something to start with.
Speaker 4: So it's like starting from zero every single year. It's
Speaker 4: like every year you build up your business and then
Speaker 4: January first comes around and there's like two of you.
Speaker 4: It's like business person number one, business person number two.
Speaker 4: You build up your business all year, January one comes around,
Speaker 4: they take everything away from you and they leave this
Speaker 4: other person with their business and they say and they
Speaker 4: say start over, And you're like wondering, how come I
Speaker 4: can't ever catch up to this person. You could make
Speaker 4: millions of dollars, you still would be behind.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean, because you've never passed it.
Speaker 4: On because you're not passing it down right. So what
Speaker 4: I tell people is when you think about life insurance, like,
Speaker 4: think about the income that our community would be losing
Speaker 4: if you were to die, if your life were to
Speaker 4: be cut short. Think about your children and how much
Speaker 4: it would help them even if you left them fifty
Speaker 4: thousand dollars. You know, people think like, oh, you know,
Speaker 4: who needs twenty five or fifty thousand or one hundred
Speaker 4: thousand dollars. You know. I was talking to somebody the
Speaker 4: other day and they're like, for every aunt or uncle
Speaker 4: or relative I've ever lost, if I got five thousan dollars,
Speaker 4: I would be pretty well loft.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, like they're like when I was in
Speaker 2: when I visited Nigeria for the first time, I was
Speaker 2: twenty one, right after college, and I remember there's one
Speaker 2: uncle in the village who was like wealthy. Like my parents' villages,
Speaker 2: they't they didn't really have much money, like no running water,
Speaker 2: everybody was still going to the stream and no electricity.
Speaker 2: But there was one uncle that was like lit, I
Speaker 2: mean like car on the dirt road everything. And I
Speaker 2: was asking my dad, how why is this one uncle?
Speaker 2: And I used the word uncle loosely, because I have
Speaker 2: no idea if he was related to us or not.
Speaker 2: Just everyone's in the uncle. That's just how you say
Speaker 2: mister or missus. So I was like how, and my
Speaker 2: dad said his grandfather thought of him, And I said how.
Speaker 2: He's like, do you see on his land that he
Speaker 2: has all of these palm trees? And palm oil is
Speaker 2: a very expensive oil and very desired oil in Africa,
Speaker 2: And it takes one hundred years from my understanding for
Speaker 2: a palm tree after planting too much sure to reap
Speaker 2: palm seeds that make palm oil. One hundred years. He said,
Speaker 2: someone thought of him before he was born and planted
Speaker 2: palm oil trees, knowing that they would never in their
Speaker 2: lifetime benefit from planting these treet That's why most people
Speaker 2: don't do it. So they planted these and this man
Speaker 2: now has you know, acres of palm oil trees and
Speaker 2: he this is what he lives off. Was because it's
Speaker 2: such an expense. And I remember that hitting me like
Speaker 2: that's that was life insurance. His grandfather bought life insurance
Speaker 2: for his future grandson, and as a result, he's wealthy,
Speaker 2: and so will his kids and his kids' kids and
Speaker 2: his kids kids.
Speaker 4: Be right right. And that's the thing, like we don't
Speaker 4: think about it because it's like, well, I'm not gonna
Speaker 4: benefit and it's like, yeah, but what if somebody had
Speaker 4: thought about you? You know what I mean? Like, what
Speaker 4: if somebody had thought about you and had created a
Speaker 4: trust for you? And we're paying your rent right now?
Speaker 4: And you know, I was watching Sister Act too last night.
Speaker 4: Don't ask why, Pross, but you know the one with
Speaker 4: Lauren Hill and her mom didn't want her to sing
Speaker 4: and her mom kept telling her how it's a dead
Speaker 4: and job. And you know, obviously this girl, Lauren Hill
Speaker 4: has this amazing, beautiful voice, and you know, I kept
Speaker 4: thinking about it. I don't know if it's because this
Speaker 4: podcast was coming up, but I was like, here, we
Speaker 4: have a girl who has this amazing voice, and her
Speaker 4: mom is stifling her because she wants her to go
Speaker 4: and get a job, because she wants her to be
Speaker 4: able to support her own self, because she knows as
Speaker 4: her mom, she can't do it. And it's like how
Speaker 4: many dreams? How many? Like my greatest accomplishment would be
Speaker 4: if my son, who's three years old, could be a teacher,
Speaker 4: making a fifty thousand dollars salary and still be able
Speaker 4: to afford a deep a house you know where we live,
Speaker 4: which is Western Virginia, which is you know, average five
Speaker 4: hundred thousand dollars. So for him to be making a
Speaker 4: fifty thousand dollars sala and still be able to easily
Speaker 4: afford a five hundred thousand dollars house, that will never
Speaker 4: be me. I have to be the one going out
Speaker 4: there and making that much money because no one left
Speaker 4: it for me. But I don't want him to be
Speaker 4: in that position. I don't want his kids like this
Speaker 4: house that I own. He one day it's going to
Speaker 4: have it free and clear, and his kids or him
Speaker 4: or whoever will have a place to say and not
Speaker 4: have to pay rent. Like that's how I see it,
Speaker 4: because I've been around people who are in those positions
Speaker 4: and I see how easy their life is, and it's like,
Speaker 4: I want my kid's life to be easy. So when
Speaker 4: you think about life insurance, if you don't if you
Speaker 4: don't have actual savings that you can leave on, get
Speaker 4: a life insurance policy and think about who in your community,
Speaker 4: whether that's your immediate family, your extended family, or your
Speaker 4: actual community, and one of the things I always talk about,
Speaker 4: and I think this is something you mentioned before, tiffany
Speaker 4: where you're like, even if you don't want to be
Speaker 4: a millionaire, make the million, keep your one hundred thousand
Speaker 4: dollars and give the nine hundred thousand dollars away, and
Speaker 4: you're going to give it to some organization that all
Speaker 4: the other benefactors or patriarchs or whoever they're called, the
Speaker 4: people who give money benefactors are not going to think
Speaker 4: about maybe there's a homeless shelter in your neighborhood that
Speaker 4: is not going to be left in the will of
Speaker 4: you know, some super rich person. Right, maybe you could
Speaker 4: leave fifty thousand dollars to them to keep them running.
Speaker 4: And the reason you know about them is because it's
Speaker 4: in your community. Maybe someone you know who you went
Speaker 4: to school with, or someone in your family had to
Speaker 4: use that shelter at some point. I mean, like look
Speaker 4: at Prince right, the Purple One. Yes, he died with
Speaker 4: a three million dollar estate, and a lot of people
Speaker 4: are like, oh, you know, you're trying to say that
Speaker 4: black people don't have money, and no, I'm just saying
Speaker 4: we don't think about estate planning, and like when you
Speaker 4: think about someone like him, who fought so hard during
Speaker 4: his life to protect his music, his image, and to
Speaker 4: own it. He provided for nothing nothing. So his sister,
Speaker 4: who it looks like is going to inherit his estate,
Speaker 4: could literally sell it. She could sell it to justin Timberlake,
Speaker 4: which would be like the greatest tragedy ever. Right, but
Speaker 4: he could no, I mean like and Prince would be
Speaker 4: turning over in his grave. And then look at all
Speaker 4: of the other programs or our organizations that he donated
Speaker 4: money to. They're not gonna get any of that money
Speaker 4: he could have if he made a will. He could
Speaker 4: have put in his will. I want my entire estate
Speaker 4: to go to the Boys and Girls Club in Paisley,
Speaker 4: wherever he lived.
Speaker 3: Can't believe he didn't. What not such a tragic, right,
Speaker 3: because think.
Speaker 4: About all the money, all the money our community could
Speaker 4: have been getting, because we just look at what he
Speaker 4: donated money to when he was alive. He held a
Speaker 4: concert in Baltimore during the Freddie Gray riots. Right, So
Speaker 4: like that kind of money would have been so helpful,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. So I think people like
Speaker 4: you said, Mandy, like we need to stop thinking one
Speaker 4: is not benefiting us, but we should start really thinking about, like,
Speaker 4: how can we pass this down and make life easier
Speaker 4: because black people now are making more money than we've
Speaker 4: ever made in history. We are more educated than we've
Speaker 4: ever been educated in history. But none of that is
Speaker 4: going to close the wealth gap if we don't pass
Speaker 4: this money down and you cannot take it with you
Speaker 4: when you go. Rather, they say you never a U
Speaker 4: haul following a hearse right.
Speaker 3: Unless you're an Egyptian. But well, like practically speaking, tell me, okay,
Speaker 3: so you know, when we spoke before, you'd mentioned, you know,
Speaker 3: leaving something to a nonprofit if you wanted to, practically
Speaker 3: how do you make sure that a you know, a
Speaker 3: nonprofit or a charity or you know, like a non
Speaker 3: human person or organization can get the can get the
Speaker 3: whatever funds you leave behind.
Speaker 4: So you would you could do that two ways. You
Speaker 4: could put it in your will. So your will is
Speaker 4: how you dispose of your assets. Now, the only thing
Speaker 4: with the will is that the will is public. So
Speaker 4: anything sorry, So anything you put in your will, once
Speaker 4: it's filed with the court after you die, it has
Speaker 4: to be produced to the court, and once it's filed,
Speaker 4: it will become public. And the court is going to
Speaker 4: have to manage it. And because you're going to have
Speaker 4: to keep going back to court, there going to be
Speaker 4: a lot of fees, there's a lot of delay because
Speaker 4: you're on the court's time. So the best way to
Speaker 4: do that is to create a will and then pour
Speaker 4: over all of your assets from your estate into a trust.
Speaker 4: And the trust so when you hear trust fund, that's
Speaker 4: where it comes from. The trust is an agreement between you,
Speaker 4: who creates it, and the trustee. So you would appoint
Speaker 4: a trustee to manage the trust, and the trust is
Speaker 4: a private document, so the will would still go to
Speaker 4: the court. But all I would say is, you know,
Speaker 4: you have to say your name, have to say where
Speaker 4: you live, you have to you know, put some other
Speaker 4: boilerplate language in there about your debts, and you have
Speaker 4: to name a personal representative or executor or administrator depending
Speaker 4: on what state you're in. And then you would say,
Speaker 4: I leave all of my assets to the trustee of
Speaker 4: the art Steel Trust, and that would be the end
Speaker 4: of your will. You would sign it and then that
Speaker 4: would be it okay, and then all of your disposition,
Speaker 4: I leave one hundred thousand dollars to the Boys and
Speaker 4: Girls Club, I leave you know, a million dollars to
Speaker 4: plan parenthood. I leave x amount to the Literature Academy.
Speaker 4: I leave Baby Brown Ambition podcast. All of that would
Speaker 4: be in your trust. Now, in the trust, you can
Speaker 4: leave outright gifts, meaning once the trustee goes through all
Speaker 4: of your debts and gathers and inventory of all of
Speaker 4: your assets, they would give that one hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 4: to whoever you named, or so that would be an
Speaker 4: outright gift. You give them their money and they go,
Speaker 4: or the trustee could put some conditions on the distribution.
Speaker 4: Now that's the one that you're normally going to do
Speaker 4: for your family or for younger children, because you don't
Speaker 4: want to leave them that money outright. Now. If you
Speaker 4: have minor children, you definitely want to consider how you
Speaker 4: want to leave the money to them if you draft
Speaker 4: your will when they're still minors. Now, if you don't
Speaker 4: leave a will, if you don't have a will and
Speaker 4: you have minor children and you die without a will,
Speaker 4: what's going to happen is the court is going to
Speaker 4: appoint someone to take care of that child's money, but
Speaker 4: only until the child reaches the age of majority. Which
Speaker 4: in most states is eighteen and I think probably only
Speaker 4: one maybe Connecticut it's twenty one. So if you don't
Speaker 4: plan properly, so if you don't leave a will at all,
Speaker 4: and you have all this money in life insurance, right,
Speaker 4: that life insurance policy won't pay the money to the
Speaker 4: child because children can't hold legal title to property meaning money,
Speaker 4: So they won't pay any of that out until someone
Speaker 4: goes to court and gets a court order and takes
Speaker 4: it to the life insurance company, and then they will
Speaker 4: pay that money. So now we have the same problem again.
Speaker 4: In order for that person to get the conservatorship over
Speaker 4: the child's money, they have to file a petition. They
Speaker 4: have to get a bond. In order for them to
Speaker 4: get the bond, the bond company has its own requirements,
Speaker 4: which are all the requirements that I repeated to you earlier.
Speaker 4: I've also seen situations where parent leaves money to child
Speaker 4: in a life insurance policy. Either they name the child
Speaker 4: directly and the child is a minor or. They don't
Speaker 4: leave any beneficiary on the life insurance but the child
Speaker 4: is their only kin, so all of it goes to
Speaker 4: the child and it is not paid out. The child
Speaker 4: might be eight to nine years old. It's not paid
Speaker 4: out until the child turns eighteen because no one could
Speaker 4: qualify to be the conservator of that money. It's crazy,
Speaker 4: and you just think about how different that child's life
Speaker 4: could be if they had that money. So now you're
Speaker 4: going to hold the life insurance policy. The life surance
Speaker 4: company is going to hold on to this money for
Speaker 4: eight nine years. Who knows what they're putting it in.
Speaker 4: They have some fiduciary duty, but it could be a
Speaker 4: million dollars or whatever. And you have your eighteen year
Speaker 4: old child inheriting this money when they're all this money
Speaker 4: when they're eighteen. So there's more than just one step, right.
Speaker 4: So it's great to get life insurance, but make sure
Speaker 4: you plan for that life insurance so that it does
Speaker 4: go from generation to generation. You can set your trust
Speaker 4: up where your child can have access to those funds
Speaker 4: for their life, and then when they die, you know
Speaker 4: their children can have access to it. You don't have
Speaker 4: to always give all of your gifts outright. You could
Speaker 4: put in there that a nonprofit can get five thousand
Speaker 4: dollars a year every year for as long as this
Speaker 4: trust is keeps going. There's money in the trust so
Speaker 4: you don't have to give it outright to organization and.
Speaker 3: All of this, all everything we're talking about power of
Speaker 3: attorney making sure you have your life insurance, your your will,
Speaker 3: your trust, anything like that. Is that all those things
Speaker 3: are covered or would be able to be covered by
Speaker 3: an estate planning attorney.
Speaker 4: Is that right? Yes?
Speaker 3: Yeah, they could manage it all for you and make
Speaker 3: sure it because that My fear is like I get
Speaker 3: all this stuff done and it's like in Google docs
Speaker 3: and I have some of it saved to my email
Speaker 3: and it's like all over the place, so wanting and
Speaker 3: then wanting a safe place to keep everything and someone
Speaker 3: I can trust to, like, you know, have my documents
Speaker 3: together so I don't have to think about them and
Speaker 3: you know, when the time comes, my loved ones will
Speaker 3: know where to get all that information.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 4: So, so the way that I do it, whenever someone
Speaker 4: comes to me for estate planning, I have them fill
Speaker 4: out a questionnaire. In that questionnaire, I have them list
Speaker 4: all of their assets and after so after that then
Speaker 4: I have the talk. You know, what do you want?
Speaker 4: You have a million dollars, you want it all to
Speaker 4: go to the kid. You want to it with you
Speaker 4: know whatever, we talk about the actual plan. How do
Speaker 4: you want this? I tell them the pros and cons. Well,
Speaker 4: here's what happens. If you don't give the child anything.
Speaker 4: When they turn eighteen, they'll just be waiting like a
Speaker 4: dog with whatever foaming at the mouth. And when they're
Speaker 4: thirty five and then they're gonna blow it anyway, So
Speaker 4: we talk about the plan. Then I draft the documents.
Speaker 4: I draft the power of Attorney, I draft the will,
Speaker 4: I draft the trust. There are two separate documents, and
Speaker 4: then there's some other little documents that go along with it.
Speaker 4: And I put on the bottom of my wills prepared
Speaker 4: by the law offices of Arnett Steel, so that if
Speaker 4: anybody finds that will hold a hold on.
Speaker 2: Holdup, did you say Arnett?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 4: I who know, it's on the interwebs. I'm not hiding it.
Speaker 3: And also your name also sounds like a superhero Art
Speaker 3: are not? Either way? Awesome?
Speaker 2: Nay it is? Yeah, Okay, that was like.
Speaker 4: You know, you know, it's so funny because like I
Speaker 4: have to put like my legal name on documents, like
Speaker 4: for legal ethical reasons, so people are always thrown off.
Speaker 4: They always think like Art is my boss. Of course,
Speaker 4: because you know, Art's a guy's name anyway. So I
Speaker 4: always put on there that I prepared the will so
Speaker 4: that when whoever finds it, they can contact me and
Speaker 4: I can give them that questionnaire that includes all of
Speaker 4: the assets, right, because people need to know. This is
Speaker 4: the first thing I tell people. Gather all your assets, right,
Speaker 4: because you know these days with all you financial people
Speaker 4: out there telling these people to open six different bank accounts,
Speaker 4: it can get I mean, I have a list, yes.
Speaker 2: But you're right, and not everyone has like all of
Speaker 2: their stuff in one concise place exactly.
Speaker 4: So have and they don't give me account numbers. I
Speaker 4: just tell them to tell me the name of the bank,
Speaker 4: maybe the last four or two or whatever, so I
Speaker 4: can give that to someone and say, well, when they
Speaker 4: came in, these are these this is where they had
Speaker 4: all of their stuff. Now, the two things that you
Speaker 4: want to three things. Three people you want to contact
Speaker 4: when it comes to the will and the trust. You're
Speaker 4: a personal representative, that is the person who is going
Speaker 4: to carry out your wishes as it pertains to the will.
Speaker 4: So the will is going to be presented to the court.
Speaker 4: If you hear the term probate, that's the probate court,
Speaker 4: the will court, they will do whatever they need to do.
Speaker 4: But if you have what's called a poor overwill where
Speaker 4: you're also using a trust, there's not really anything for
Speaker 4: them to do in probate court. But that person technically
Speaker 4: is called the personal representative. Okay, And then you want
Speaker 4: to select a trustee. The trustee is the person who's
Speaker 4: going to manage the trust. Now, you generally have two
Speaker 4: options when it comes to selecting a trustee. You can
Speaker 4: select an individual and that can be someone you know
Speaker 4: or a family member or a friend, or you could
Speaker 4: select a company. Now they're pros and cons of each right,
Speaker 4: because if you select an individual, you can tell that
Speaker 4: person all about what you want. You can kind of
Speaker 4: make side agreements and be like, Okay, I'm gonna put
Speaker 4: this in the trust, but really, you know, depending on
Speaker 4: how you know the person or whatever. But the drawback
Speaker 4: to that is that person is maybe a family member,
Speaker 4: so they they may feel a little you know, soft
Speaker 4: toward whoever is asking for the money, you know. And
Speaker 4: then the other option is you can use a company
Speaker 4: like Fidelity or Chase or Prudential, all of these retirement
Speaker 4: company you know, retirement bank accounts companies out there. They
Speaker 4: usually will have a trust management a department, or you
Speaker 4: may have local ones like the New Jersey Trust Company.
Speaker 4: They're much smaller, but all they do is trust management.
Speaker 4: So if you choose them, you know they're going to
Speaker 4: follow your trust document to a t because they don't
Speaker 4: want to be sued, right So, so either way, you
Speaker 4: need to speak to that person beforehand in order to
Speaker 4: name them as a trustee. And then if you have children,
Speaker 4: you want to name the guardian of your children, and
Speaker 4: you want to name the guardian of your children property,
Speaker 4: your children's property. Now, the guardian of the child is
Speaker 4: the person who's going to take care of the kids,
Speaker 4: you know they're well being, and the guardian of the
Speaker 4: miner's property is the person who's going to be in
Speaker 4: charge of the money. It can be the same person,
Speaker 4: it could be a different person. The court is no
Speaker 4: matter who you name, the court is always going to
Speaker 4: have a hearing to make sure that whoever you name
Speaker 4: is fit because, as you know, when it comes to children,
Speaker 4: the court is always charged with acting in the best
Speaker 4: interests of the child, So they want to make sure
Speaker 4: that the person who you've named is fit to actually
Speaker 4: take care of this child. And maybe you did it
Speaker 4: when your child was first born and that person was
Speaker 4: like your best friend and they live next door. But
Speaker 4: ten years later, your child's now ten years old, that
Speaker 4: person could be living in a different state. You know,
Speaker 4: so the court is always going to have to to see.
Speaker 4: But the most important thing about your will is remember
Speaker 4: the bond I was talking about. You can waive that
Speaker 4: in your will. So you can put in your will
Speaker 4: that you don't want anybody, any of your representatives. You
Speaker 4: don't want them to be required to get a bond,
Speaker 4: and then they won't have to get it, so you
Speaker 4: skip that whole step, so then they can be a
Speaker 4: personal representative. Wow, I know so much exactly.
Speaker 2: I'm like Superman. That's on.
Speaker 3: Here you go, bye, going.
Speaker 4: Mandy to answer your question. So when I'm done with
Speaker 4: all of that, I actually give my clients. So you're
Speaker 4: going to sign a copy of your will. You're going
Speaker 4: to not a copy. You're going to sign your will.
Speaker 4: You're going to sign your power of attorney. You have
Speaker 4: to keep those original documents now for your will. Some
Speaker 4: states do allow you to file the original copy or
Speaker 4: the original of your will with the state. Now you
Speaker 4: can always go back and revoke it and take it
Speaker 4: and tear it up. But that's one way to safe
Speaker 4: keep it. I tell people, don't put in your safety
Speaker 4: posit box, because if you're the only one who has
Speaker 4: access to the safety posit box and you die, then
Speaker 4: nobody can go and get it because even if you're
Speaker 4: giving that person permission to it, and the will, the
Speaker 4: will's is the safety posit box. Yeah, so tell your
Speaker 4: family that you have a will. I don't. I don't.
Speaker 4: I don't think I'm of the opinion that people shouldn't
Speaker 4: hide that. They should say I went to a lawyer,
Speaker 4: I prepared the will a will. Here's the lawyer's name.
Speaker 4: If that person is your executor or your trustee, let
Speaker 4: them know, I mean, talk to them beforehand, but then
Speaker 4: let them know I named you as trustee, you know,
Speaker 4: so that way people aren't like, does she have a will?
Speaker 4: Does she not have a will? Know she had to
Speaker 4: have a will, you know, or at least you're letting
Speaker 4: people know at some point you went and got a will,
Speaker 4: because then that could inform other decisions and you know,
Speaker 4: help solve a lot of problems.
Speaker 3: Do you have any sort of like checklists that you
Speaker 3: that you can provide because honestly, I just selfishly, I
Speaker 3: would like, I'm just gonna put it on my fridge
Speaker 3: and just look at it.
Speaker 4: So I do have one. So anybody listening, let me
Speaker 4: make sure I get this right. Anyone listening can text
Speaker 4: Willpower two four four two two two.
Speaker 3: Oh damn. I thought you're gonna be like, download this way.
Speaker 3: You are so official you.
Speaker 2: You don't even know. Man, I got my phone.
Speaker 4: Now I'm like, say it again, say it again, triple
Speaker 4: check to make sure I'm not telling you guys to
Speaker 4: download my on track checklist.
Speaker 2: And is this all one word will power? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Will power? Yeah, it's all one word w I L
Speaker 4: L P O W E R okay or yeah it
Speaker 4: doesn't matter, okay. Yeah, And it's four four two two two.
Speaker 4: So once they text that number will Power to that number,
Speaker 4: they'll get a text saying please provide your email address.
Speaker 2: Well, I'll say it hello, Please reply with the text
Speaker 2: compeating your only email address so we can send you
Speaker 2: everything we promise. Thanks. You think I won't done?
Speaker 4: Yeah. So in there, it's actually a workbook that defines
Speaker 4: a lot of the terms that we talked about in
Speaker 4: case people need to review them. I give you like
Speaker 4: some pointers on you know, how to choose your everything.
Speaker 4: I just went over basically, but at least you have
Speaker 4: it in writing and you can start feeling it's actually
Speaker 4: a fillable workbook. So it'll ask you like, who do
Speaker 4: you want to be your trustee? Just to get people thinking,
Speaker 4: because again, you know, just I don't want to say
Speaker 4: just pick somebody, but this is not It doesn't mean
Speaker 4: you're gonna die. I always tell my clients, actually, now
Speaker 4: that you've done this, you're gonna live forever.
Speaker 2: So here's a question. Aren't that so? How often? Because
Speaker 2: I got I joked with you earlier that my my
Speaker 2: dad was like, I've got a will, No need to worry.
Speaker 2: I'm like daddy. I read the will. It says Tiffany,
Speaker 2: aged six, belongs to her uncle should I pass away.
Speaker 2: That's not like I'm thirty eight now right. How Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: I was I was joke. I was with my mom.
Speaker 2: She's doing some estate planning and preparing for retirement, and
Speaker 2: we're sitting down with financial advisor that I was helping
Speaker 2: her interview and she he was telling her, you need
Speaker 2: a will, you know do you have? She said, I
Speaker 2: have one? And I told her I was like, Mommy,
Speaker 2: you know about that will?
Speaker 1: How do you know?
Speaker 2: And I'm like, so, first of all, now it's a
Speaker 2: secret that you have, you know. And she looked like
Speaker 2: and I'm like, well, first one, why wouldn't you tell me?
Speaker 2: I'm just nosy, So I should just go through all
Speaker 2: their paperwork when they were like, await, like at parties
Speaker 2: or whatever. So I was like, I know.
Speaker 4: All Africa gives do that?
Speaker 2: What's in this folder? Ooh, I'm belong to uncle uncle
Speaker 2: Mike her Okay, well how come Tracy gets go? Well
Speaker 2: uncle telling me I like him better? Right? So that
Speaker 2: was one and then two. So but how often should
Speaker 2: you update like this, like every year? Like what does
Speaker 2: that look like?
Speaker 4: No? I think that when you have major life changes, right,
Speaker 4: So if you have a child. Most people come to
Speaker 4: me when they have a child, So you want to
Speaker 4: include your child in the will if your children are
Speaker 4: minor are minors, but then obviously you know when they
Speaker 4: become adults, that's a completely different estate plan than when
Speaker 4: they're like five or six years old. So most people
Speaker 4: will say every like revisited every five or six years.
Speaker 4: So I would say maybe I would say six to seven.
Speaker 4: And if you have any major life events. So if
Speaker 4: you get married, the law takes care of a lot
Speaker 4: of that for married people. But if you get a divorce,
Speaker 4: you definitely want to change your estate plan if your
Speaker 4: spouse was included in there. If you have a child,
Speaker 4: you would want to update it so that you would
Speaker 4: include that child. If you I don't know, if you
Speaker 4: have like a major, major, major increase in your income, yeah,
Speaker 4: then you would want to do it. But buying, let's
Speaker 4: say you put your home that you currently own in
Speaker 4: a trust and then you sell the trust, I mean
Speaker 4: sell the home. You don't need to update it for that.
Speaker 4: The trust will only include property that actually exists at
Speaker 4: the time that you die, So selling property that you
Speaker 4: put in the trust moving to another state, unless that
Speaker 4: state's law is really really wacky, then I would. And
Speaker 4: there are only a few that I can think of, Like,
Speaker 4: for example, in Louisiana, you can't disinherit your children, meaning
Speaker 4: you have to leave your children something if you live
Speaker 4: and if you are domiciled in the state of Louisiana
Speaker 4: when you die. That is not the case for any
Speaker 4: other state. In any other state, you can leave your
Speaker 4: children completely out of your will, So that's the only
Speaker 4: time you would have to update your will. But if
Speaker 4: you move to another state, that state would would still
Speaker 4: be would still use that will because they states give
Speaker 4: each other what's called the full faith and credit. They
Speaker 4: have to accept legal documents from other states. So like
Speaker 4: the same reason, if you get married in New Jersey
Speaker 4: and you move to wherever, you're still married, okay, okayeah,
Speaker 4: so moving selling property, no major life changes, yeah or
Speaker 4: every I would say six to seven.
Speaker 3: Years, set calendar alert.
Speaker 4: Right, you're zero for you, Mandy.
Speaker 3: I mean I got life insurance though I didn't mean
Speaker 3: to be like I don't have anything. I'm good, but
Speaker 3: I take get it through my employer though, and I
Speaker 3: understand that if you, you know, work for yourself, you
Speaker 3: don't always get well.
Speaker 4: That's one of the best ways to get life insurance.
Speaker 4: It's like, just get it when your employer is offering it,
Speaker 4: because a lot of times when you leave, especially all
Speaker 4: these full time people who are working on their side
Speaker 4: hustles and hoping to turn it into their full time job,
Speaker 4: is get it when you are at your employer, and
Speaker 4: a lot of times when you leave sometimes you may
Speaker 4: be able to take just take it with you. I
Speaker 4: know I was able to do that when I left Discovery.
Speaker 4: So I have the same life insurance policy paying about
Speaker 4: the same rate for the same amount that they were offering.
Speaker 3: Oh interesting. Yeah, I've heard some employers it can be
Speaker 3: portable and then sometimes it's not. So I should check
Speaker 3: and see if mine is portable, because you know, if
Speaker 3: it's not, then it's only going to be more expensive.
Speaker 3: Along where I wait to get my own exactly my
Speaker 3: own policy.
Speaker 4: I know that Malcolm MJ. Harris, his company does help
Speaker 4: entrepreneurs get life insurance. Tell you, man, he is with people.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna behitting you up about MJ.
Speaker 4: MJ.
Speaker 3: Smarty smarty Artie. That's what I'm gonna start calling you.
Speaker 2: Did they call you that at school?
Speaker 4: Art? No? Unfortunately I didn't get my glory. Then it's
Speaker 4: okay somebody who went to girl.
Speaker 3: You don't want to pick too soon?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you don't, you do, that's true.
Speaker 2: But yes, this.
Speaker 4: Was. This was awesome.
Speaker 2: Honestly, I'm learning so much. I'm like this is. I
Speaker 2: think so many of our listeners can really relate whether
Speaker 2: they have aging parents or you're just thinking about your
Speaker 2: own kind of like history, or whether you have kids
Speaker 2: or not. There's so much to unpack, and I think
Speaker 2: you really helped us to at least start to unpack it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you know, shameless plug for myself, Tiffany. I'm
Speaker 4: going to be talking about this in a lot more
Speaker 4: detail if you can imagine that in your Liverage Academy, which.
Speaker 2: Wow, yes if you are not a member play.
Speaker 4: Series you guys.
Speaker 2: Yes, So the Liberature Academy what I try to do. Man,
Speaker 2: we have to have you on girl, what's waiting on?
Speaker 3: Wait about your.
Speaker 2: You come talk about how to start a podcast? No,
Speaker 2: but the Literature Academy, for those of you had to
Speaker 2: don't know, is my online school, and I really try
Speaker 2: my best to have really dope, mostly brown instructors who
Speaker 2: are experts in their field. And Art is one of
Speaker 2: our experts and she she's taught kind of like a
Speaker 2: mini lesson on estate planning and now she's going to
Speaker 2: do a full fledged course and then we're excited. It's
Speaker 2: her course starts this month in April. It's three weeks,
Speaker 2: so every Thursday she's going to be diving deep and
Speaker 2: you're gonna get some corresponding documents alongside of it. So
Speaker 2: if you are an Academy member, and if you're not,
Speaker 2: you can join us if you go to join lr
Speaker 2: dot com. I know, I don't talk about it much
Speaker 2: here because we're all about BA here, but certainly you
Speaker 2: can come on over. Academy's less than ten bucks a month,
Speaker 2: and I do that on purpose because I really want
Speaker 2: us to have access to the tools that we typically
Speaker 2: are left out of. So I keep it really low cost.
Speaker 2: But I get like the best people out there, and
Speaker 2: art is amazing, Like, no, you are for really, they're
Speaker 2: already super excited. I went live in the because the
Speaker 2: Academy has their own private Facebook group. I want live today. Yo.
Speaker 2: It's so I just love, like, I just love helping
Speaker 2: brown women because it's like I always feel like I'm
Speaker 2: like a kid on Sunday morning in church doing my solo.
Speaker 4: They're just like, oh yeah, yeah, they're so encouraging. Right Yeah,
Speaker 4: I was.
Speaker 1: Like a lot today and I was like and then
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you guys. They're like, yes, tivity, yes, Brohm.
Speaker 1: I'm like you know what, I just love my people,
Speaker 1: brown women, black women. You guys are just amazing, and
Speaker 1: so yeah, they were super excited.
Speaker 2: They were like, we love art, so Yeah, this is
Speaker 2: something because what we've me and Mandy, what we do
Speaker 2: here is like what you know we try to do overall,
Speaker 2: is to provide a platform to share information in a
Speaker 2: way that's going to affect people of the diaspora, like
Speaker 2: you know, that might not otherwise get this information at
Speaker 2: least not dispersed in this kind of fun, lighthearted, easy
Speaker 2: to consume and understand kind of way. So be a
Speaker 2: podcast all day, every day. Tell a friend. It's tell
Speaker 2: a friend, Mandy, what are you doing? You're offully quiet today.
Speaker 3: I'm waiting for an opening. It's hard when there's three
Speaker 3: of us and I don't want to talk over anybody,
Speaker 3: so I feel like it's it's like a double dutch,
Speaker 3: that's all.
Speaker 4: I'm like, No, I just want to say thank you
Speaker 4: so much, Art, and I agree with everything Tiffany said, And.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Brown, ambition is where it's at. You are broad
Speaker 3: ambition personified. And I love just the conversation that we're
Speaker 3: having around being. You know, I feel like financial success
Speaker 3: is it is just exponentially greater when you when you
Speaker 3: when you're planning for not just yourself, but for the
Speaker 3: people behind you. That story about Tiffany's grandfather and planting
Speaker 3: that what kind of tree was it I'm gonna to get?
Speaker 4: And I actually think it's more rewarding when you're when
Speaker 4: you're just when you're imagining like two or three generations,
Speaker 4: like how need.
Speaker 3: To just fix the world, just thinking about someone besides
Speaker 3: your damn self, you know
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, and you just think of all the problems
Speaker 4: as black people, like how many of us wouldn't have
Speaker 4: to go through the criminal justice system if we have money,
Speaker 4: you know, right, I know money doesn't solve everything, but
Speaker 4: it could help well either, right,